Superb essay by Sandra Steingraber in Orion about neurotoxicants.

And fourth, maybe not surprisingly, is that the chemicals designed to act as neurological poisons — the organophosphate pesticides — truly do so. And at levels common among children. Frequently used in fruit and vegetable farming, organophosphate insecticides kill by attacking the nervous systems of insect pests. They have the same effect in humans: organophosphates interfere with the recycling of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, one of the messaging signals that flow between neurons. Mounting evidence collected among various populations of children — from Harlem neighborhoods to the fields of California’s Central Valley — all suggest that organophosphate exposure affects cognition. For example, a small study of inner-city minority children found connections between organophosphate levels in their umbilical cord blood collected at birth and attention problems at age thr...